Naracoorte's hair and beauty program cut

HAIR and Beauty students at Naracoorte TAFE campus have been left in the lurch after the program was withdrawn after one semester in 2014.

HAIR and Beauty students at Naracoorte TAFE campus have been left in the lurch after the program was withdrawn after one semester in 2014.

The situation has been described as a "pain" to students like Naracoorte's Karin Anderson, who was completing a certificate three in beauty.

Mrs Anderson is interested in getting into the nails side of beauty work but needs to complete the whole course in order to be qualified.

Because of the closure of Naracoorte TAFE it means she would have to finish her studies at the Mount Gambier campus.

"It's a real pain," she said. "It's frustrating...I've paid my fees and I've studied that section of the course but if I don't go down to Mount Gambier all that is lost."

Making it even more frustrating is that Mrs Anderson's studies had already been disrupted by being in hospital, which was when the students found out they were not going to be able to finish the course in Naracoorte.

She only found out when one of her classmates messaged her.

It was only two weeks before the course wound up that Mrs Anderson got out of hospital and read the official correspondence from TAFE via a letter from TAFE's hair and beauty educational manager Merrill Gratton.

"The decision to cease delivery of the hair and beauty program at the Naracoorte campus is definitive and has been made in response to considerations of the financial viability of TAFE SA's hair and beauty program," the letter read.

"Variables such as student demand, funding levels and the significant costs of operating across multiple sites have combined to make the ongoing delivery at the Naracoorte campus unsustainable. TAFE SA regrets any inconvenience this decision may cause you."

Mrs Anderson, who took up the course last year to "do something for herself" after her kids had grown up, said she wasn't even the most disadvantaged.

"It's only an extra hour for me (to go to Mount Gambier)," she said. "There are people from Keith and Bordertown who do the course."

For the one day a week required at TAFE, these students would need to do roughly four hours of travel.

"There'll be a bit of car pooling happening," Mrs Anderson said.

"They drive to Naracoorte and then get a lift down."

School-based students in the area have also been left high and dry thanks to the changes, as they are unable to just leave school to go so far to study.

Ms Anderson said she was "reassessing" whether she will finish the course in the near future at Mount Gambier.

Robyn Verrall previously travelled from the Tatiara to complete her studies at Naracoorte's TAFE campus. She is one of many students now inconvenienced by the hair and beauty program she was completing being discontinued at Naracoorte, meaning she either has to stop studying or travel all the way to Mount Gambier.